Healthcare services · Credentialing and payer enrollment
Arctic Health
A New York startup pairing credentialing specialists with AI browser agents to get clinicians in-network faster. Founded in 2025, it joined Y Combinator's Spring 2026 batch and publicly launched its platform in May 2026.
A provider who cannot bill anyone yet
A clinic hires a new physician. She has a license, a diploma, malpractice coverage, references. None of that lets her bill a single insurance claim. First, dozens of payers each need to independently verify who she is, where she trained, and that she is who her paperwork says she is, through their own portal, their own document formats, and their own timelines.
Arctic Health's own homepage frames the pitch in three numbers: a claimed 2 day turnaround to payer submission, more than 300 insurance networks covered, and an average 60 to 90 day span from first submission to a provider actually being in-network. The company sells itself as the layer that absorbs that wait.
“Stop losing revenue to credentialing delays.” is the line at the top of its site. Under it: “We handle documentation, payer submissions, and follow-ups so you can focus on patients.”
The gap the founders describe
On its Y Combinator profile, the company frames the scale of the problem in a single figure: it says administrative spend in US healthcare exceeds $1 trillion annually, and that credentialing and payer contracting are workflows that “cost billions each year” while remaining largely manual.
Existing credentialing software, the company argues, covers only pieces of that workflow or prices out small and mid-sized practices. Arctic Health's answer is to combine what it calls browser automations, AI agents that submit and monitor status across payer portals directly, with credentialing specialists who review every application before it goes out and who the company says handle industry edge cases.
The company says it serves telehealth providers, clinics, group practices, revenue cycle management companies, and credentialing verification organizations across the country, and that it can act as a white-label credentialing engine behind an RCM company's or CVO's own brand.
Three founders from Scale AI, Instabase and Airbnb
Sam Slezek, the CEO, built the PhD data platform at Scale AI before Arctic Health, work the company says exposed him to demand from AI labs and enterprises for workflow-specific training data. Before Scale, he led the Instacart+ subscription product team, invested at the venture firm Amasia, and covered insurance companies in investment banking at Morgan Stanley.
Raghav Mehrish, the CTO, was a senior software engineer at Airbnb, where he worked on host growth, internationalization and long-term stays. Earlier he built the payroll platform and mobile app at Zenefits, and before Arctic Health he co-founded Handstamp, an event ticketing platform the company says he scaled to several million dollars in gross merchandise value and hundreds of thousands of users.
Michael Clark, the COO, was the founding sales rep on Instabase's inside sales team, where he says he led the company's push into healthcare AI, including work with CVS on prior authorization. Before that he traded debt at the boutique hedge fund 1Sharpe Capital.
“At our previous companies (Scale AI, Instabase, and Airbnb) we kept running into the same gap: powerful AI tools fell short in workflows with specific rules, data types, and consequences,” the founders wrote of their decision to start the company.
From founding to public launch
Arctic Health was founded in 2025 and was admitted to Y Combinator's Spring 2026 batch. It launched publicly in late May 2026: Y Combinator's own account posted the launch on LinkedIn on May 26, 2026, and the independent roundup Menlo Times listed it among that week's “Y Combinator Launches of the Week” on May 28, 2026, alongside eight other batch companies.
By September 2026, the company's site described itself as working with telehealth groups, clinics, group practices, RCM companies and CVOs, and said its team has “20+ years of experience building systems at scale,” a reference to the founders' prior employers rather than to Arctic Health's own age. It listed a New York City address and a public phone number.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Y Combinator listing | Founded 2025, Spring 2026 batch, active status, team size 4, location New York City, NY, primary partner Aaron Epstein. | Accelerator record |
| NCQA CVO certification | Company states directly: “While we do not currently hold NCQA CVO certification, we are actively evaluating its pursuit as part of our ongoing commitment to industry leadership and best practices.” | Company-stated |
| Submission speed claim | The homepage banner states “2 Days to payer submission.” The About page's own “By the Numbers” section instead lists “7 Days to payer submission,” even though that same About page's service description separately promises submission “within 2 business days.” | Site contradicts itself |
| Reported funding | PitchBook lists $500K raised to date across two logged deals, one tagged Accelerator/Incubator and one Early Stage VC, with Fortitude Ventures, Menlo Ventures and Y Combinator named as investors. No dates, per-round amounts or valuation are shown on the public page. | Funding aggregator |
| SEC Form D | An EDGAR company-name search and an EDGAR full-text search for “Arctic Health” both returned zero filings as of Sep 25, 2026. | Not found |
| Named customers | No provider group, health system, RCM company or CVO is named publicly as a customer. One credentialing professional, Saliha Javid, described partnering with the company in an April 2026 LinkedIn post, without naming her organization. | Not found |
| Scale claims | The company's own site states “2k+” providers served, “300+” payer networks covered, and “10+” years of credentialing experience on its team. None of these figures could be independently verified. | Company-stated |
Read plainly: Arctic Health has a real accelerator pedigree, three founders with verifiable prior employers, and a specific, detailed description of what its platform does. What it does not yet have in public view is a filed funding record, a named customer, or an outside audit of its own stated turnaround numbers, which do not even agree with each other on its own website.
What to watch
- Whether the 2 day and 7 day submission-speed claims on Arctic Health's own site get reconciled.
- Whether the company pursues NCQA CVO certification, which it says it is evaluating.
- A first SEC Form D, or confirmation that its financing has stayed under exemptions that do not require one.
- Named provider group, health system or CVO customers disclosed publicly.
In their words
“I made a deliberate decision to partner with Arctic Health because their approach to credentialing is fundamentally different from the large, volume-driven firms in the market.”
Saliha Javid, credentialing professional, LinkedIn post, Apr 16, 2026 · Independent
“Arctic Health pairs best-in-class credentialing experts with an AI platform that validates data against primary sources, navigates payer portals, and tracks status end-to-end.”
Y Combinator, LinkedIn launch post, May 26, 2026 · Independent
“Arctic Health is the AI-native healthcare services company powering clinics, hospitals, RCM companies and telehealth groups.”
f4.fund company profile, accessed Sep 2026 · Independent
“At our previous companies (Scale AI, Instabase, and Airbnb) we kept running into the same gap: powerful AI tools fell short in workflows with specific rules, data types, and consequences.”
Founders, Y Combinator company profile, 2026 · Company-stated
“While we do not currently hold NCQA CVO certification, we are actively evaluating its pursuit as part of our ongoing commitment to industry leadership and best practices.”
Arctic Health, About page, accessed Sep 2026 · Company-stated
“Intros to healthcare organizations who need to manage credentialing at scale, including: medical clinics, health systems, telehealth companies, MSOs, RCM companies.”
Founders, Y Combinator company profile, “Our Asks,” 2026 · Company-stated
“Stop losing revenue to credentialing delays.”
Arctic Health homepage, accessed Sep 2026 · Company-stated
Related companies
Sources
- CompanyArctic Health: AI-native credentialing and contracting for healthcare
- CompanyArctic Health homepage
- CompanyAbout Arctic Health
- CompanyAmerigroup Provider Enrollment & Credentialing page
- IndependentArctic Health 2026 Company Profile: Valuation, Funding & Investors
- IndependentArctic Health startup profile
- IndependentArctic Health company profile
- IndependentY Combinator Launches of the Week
- IndependentArctic Health Simplifies Healthcare Credentialing with AI Platform
- IndependentArctic Health: Tailored Credentialing for Quality and Compliance
- CompanyMaximize Healthcare Revenue with Expert Credentialing and Contracting
- IndependentArctic Health independent API profile
- Public recordEDGAR full text search for “Arctic Health”: zero results
- Public recordEDGAR company search for “arctic health,” Form D: zero results
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
